Gas vapor discharge lamps, more popularly known as fluorescent lamps, are typically operated from power sources having voltage and frequency different from those typically available. Accordingly, these light sources are typically associated with power conditioning and starting componentry, sometimes popularly referred to as a ballast. Aside from very light duty applications where a simple resistance ballast can be used, the vast majority of such componentry include heavy electrical components such as transformers. In order to meet applicable safety standards, these components are typically enclosed in a housing, and the interior space of the housing is potted. Presently available housings are usually metal, either steel or aluminum, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,819. While U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,379,321, 4,507,719 and 4,563,729 show plastic housings, they all include metal plates, pans or brackets for support and/or heat conduction, U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,539 uses a plastic housing 11, however the ballast 16 and bracket 23 appear to be metal. Finishing the housings usually requires additional plating and/or painting. The conductive nature of the housing also imposes severe safety requirements since the housings per se are conductive. It would be advantageous, from many points of view, if other materials could be used. Non-metal housings would:
(1) significantly reduce the weight of the finished assembly,
(2) eliminate the necessity for additional plating and/or painting operations, thus reducing cost,
(3) perhaps eliminate the necessity for potting, also reducing cost and weight.
Furthermore, a typical component in such an electrical assembly is a printed circuit (PC) board. Printed circuit boards have been used for years and perform two functions. They provide a means for supporting electrical componentry and they provide many if not all of the connections between that componentry. Conventional printed circuit boards are usually constructed of non-conductive material, typically in the form of a rectangular parallelepiped with upper and lower plane surfaces. Either or both of these surfaces may carry conductive traces, and the board usually also includes several holes (either plated or unplated) to both interconnect the conductive traces on the upper surface to the lower surface and, in other respects, to provide a mounting facility for electrical componentry.
The typical form of a printed circuit board is driven by cost parameters which include not only the cost of manufacturing the printed circuit board, but also the cost of using it in assembling the final product. The form of the printed circuit boards impacts the cost of assembly in that it has an impact on the ability to use automatic assembly techniques. It would be an advantage if the printed circuit board (which as now constituted is essentially a two-dimensional object) could have a three-dimensional characteristic, i.e. have integral components which extend above the upper plane surface for example. Such integral components would eliminate the necessity for attaching loose components to a two-dimensional printed circuit board.